There is something enchanting about November and the impending holidays just ahead.
It invokes thoughts of blazing fireplaces, cozy reading chairs with blankets draped over, family gatherings, walks in the woods, pumpkin pies and the scents of home.
Perhaps most of all, it's about the kitchen table, that delightful, inviting place at the table where we are loved and appreciated, whether at home or a guest elsewhere.
Tables have been around for a long, long time. I think God may have set up the first one, at least the first one ever mentioned that I am aware of. A table was first mentioned in the Bible in Exodus 25:23-24, talking about the table of shew-bread. (Shew-bread was unleavened bread placed upon a table which stood in the sanctuary together with the seven-branched candlestick and the altar of incense.) In this passage God tells Moses to make a table from acacia wood and then to overlay it with pure gold.
Tables are also mentioned numerous times through-out the Bible, including the night of the Last Supper when Jesus broke bread with his apostles and told them to "do this in remembrance of Me". It is clear that tables are to play a very important part in life around the world - obviously, if God designed it so. And eating is a fact of life each and every day. He designed that, also.
It's not the elegance or lack of it, or even the food served on the table - I've known people who use old wooden doors or even plywood for the table top, or picnic tables for dining room tables, hobbit tables, booths and benches or mats on the floor. I have also known those who would only serve their finest food on the most elegant of tables.
But really, it's not about the kind or type of table itself.
It's about the place of welcome.
A place of belonging, for one invited meal, or for the many.
It's about having a place at the table. Everyone should have one.
May we remember to invite someone over this holiday season,
who does not have a place at a table.
~ Gwen of IRISH ACRES
Fondest Memories Are Made When Gathered Around the Table.
Quote ~ author unknown
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